The secret service and leftist organisations

[spartafc]

It's interesting studying the role of the secret service in leftist organisations.

Here in the U.K. an author called Francis Beckett has suggested that the secret service has a history of strong involvement in the British Communist Party, particularly during its hayday:


It [M15] tapped the communists' phones, it raided their offices and published the documents it found, it planted spies, it put leading Communists in prison, it rushed to declare the Zinoviev letter genuine, on virtually no evidence. [Enemy Within (http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASIN/0850364779/qid%3D1121618734/sr%3D1-1/ref%3Dsr%5F1%5F0%5F1/202-8921522-4825468)]

Beckett suggests that by the 80's the "British Communist Party" was largely no longer worth tapping. However this didn't stop the M15 from embedding a hidden microphone into their party HQ walls.

I'm currently reading about the role of the American secret services in leftist revolutionary organisations. The FBI, for example, set up a 'counter-intelligence' organisation called COINTELPRO in the late 50's. Leaked documents suggest that the organisation's aim was to "increase factionalism, cause disruption and win defections" in/from organisations such as the Communist Party of America [COINTELPRO (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/COINTELPRO)]. Leaked COINTELPRO documents allegidly state that "the purpose of counter-intelligence action is to disrupt ... it is immaterial whether facts exist to substantiate charges" [COINTELPRO (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/COINTELPRO)].


I wonder if most Rev-Left members have files? Or if they are still bugging revolutionary organisations? Neither would surprise me.

[southernmissfan]

COINTELPRO was also used to disrupt the Black Panthers and AIM. If you're interested, I recommend Prison Writings: My Life is a Sundance by Leonard Peltier, who's still in jail as a result of the FBI's war against AIM...

[spartafc]

I recommend Prison Writings: My Life is a Sundance

I'll check it out. I also want to read 'The Cointelpro Papers: Documents from the FBI's Secret Wars Against Dissent in the United States'.

[Severian]

Originally posted by [email protected] 24 2005, 04:53 PM
I wonder if most Rev-Left members have files? Or if they are still bugging revolutionary organisations? Neither would surprise me.
As you say.

In the U.S., anyway, the ability of the political police to carry out this type of operation was pushed back somewhat coming out of the 1960s-70s radicalization. This was reflected by a series of successful lawsuits by different groups against FBI disruption operations, in which the courts ruled it was illegal to investigate groups for their legal political activities.

In the 80s, however, the FBI admitted to conducting an investigation of the Committee in Solidarity with the People of El Salvador and numerous other groups involved in protests against U.S. intervention in Central America.

Washington has sought to remove the restrictions on political spying as part of its so-called war on terrorism; recently the FBI admitted having thousands of pages of recent files on groups including Greenpeace and the ACLU. (http://www.usatoday.com/news/washington/2005-07-18-fbi-aclu_x.htm)

How extensive their political spying and disruption operations are right now....is hard to know.

[Clarksist]

I very much believe that they still worry about insurrection.

In fact, the government is fucken paranoid about it. Our IP addresses are probably being logged right now.

The thing is, the government has so much to lose if we destroy the government. In fact, it has EVERYTHING to lose.

I feel them breathing down my neck right now...

[Michael De Panama]

I highly doubt the government has any of you on file, considering how most leftists are of no threat to anyone. But you can go ahead and flatter yourselves all you want.

[cubalibra]

The government does have files on activist organizations such as greenpeace and moveon.org so if you are a member of an activist organization, your probably on file.

[Severian]

Originally posted by [email protected] 25 2005, 06:39 PM
In fact, the government is fucken paranoid about it.
......
I feel them breathing down my neck right now...
So......who's paranoid then?

In fact, one of the major purposes of COINTELPRO-style operations is to...."enhance the paranoia endemic in these circles" as the FBI once put it.

Seems to have worked.

[redstarshining]

I don't know about other places, but here in Germany the secret services actually admit to keeping files on leftist organizations and individual members of those organizations, at least those with a revolutionary platform or tendency. The PDS (party of democratic socialism) for example is constantly being monitored by the "Verfassungsschutz" (Federal Constitution Agency), as well as many communist parties and organizations, some of which are even explicitly refered to as "terroristic" in their annual report. Revolutionary communism is obviously still perceived as a threat here (which I personally find rather encouraging, despite all idiotic comparisons to terrorism :) ).

Now I don't know if they still tap phones and bug apartments, but I wouldn't be surprised if they did. After all, until a ruling from the supreme court today, even the police had the authorization to do just that without having to provide any kind of evidence. It is also common knowledge that they have infiltrated all major "radical" parties and organizations with agents. As for RL, I don't know whether or not they are interested in us (they appear to be aiming mainly for groups operating on a local or national level), but according to their website they DO monitor what they call "leftist extremist" internet publications.

[Severian]

Hm. Sounds kinda like the political police have more ability to openly do that kind of thing in Germany than in some other advanced capitalist countries.

[praxis1966]

I've published this link in another thread (in this forum I believe) which has the most popularly requested FBI documents released under FOIA (Freedom of Information Act). It contains stuff on damned near every celebrity and leftist organization that existed prior to 1980.

Declassified FBI Docs (http://foia.fbi.gov/alpha.htm)

Edit: Just for shits and grins I cruised on over to the CIA site to see if they had anything similar to the FBI pertaining to FOIA. Sure enough they do, so I've added the link. I haven't delved that deeply into it, so I'm really not sure if you'll find anything as juicy as the FBI site has.

Declassified CIA Docs (http://www.foia.cia.gov/records.asp)

[rebelworker]

Right now many members of NEFAC have been banned from crossing the border in both directions, membership in the organization has been stated as the reason in several cases.

We also had a member with Argentinian citizenship denied entry when trying to return to the US, he said they had a huge file on him, much of it related to antifa activity.

Also we no longer receive our english publications here in canada from the us, they all "disapear" in the mail.

During coordinated strike support in many different cities here in Quebec, police in a smaller town were overheard by a comrade saying "these guys are in the same group as in montreal". We are a small group but clearly the state on both sides of the border has taken an interst in us, wouldnt be suprised if the same was true of other orgs.

Also the FBI mentioned The Anarchist Black Cross Federation in their anti terrorism task force report to congress, they specified the ABC in boston which uis not actually part of the Fed. kinda weird...

Dont be too paranoid but be aware,
rebelworker

[PRC-UTE]

Some parties on the 'left' are most certainly shaped by intellegence operatives, judging by the way so routinuely demoralise activists. They suck out their life and spit em out piecemeal.

[Severian]

Originally posted by [email protected] 28 2005, 05:07 PM
We also had a member with Argentinian citizenship denied entry when trying to return to the US, he said they had a huge file on him, much of it related to antifa activity.
Yeah, la migra are "denying entry" or reentry a lot. There was a member of the SWP they tried to exclude...which highlighted just how many immigrant workers, including people with green cards, they were pulling this crap on based on various old charges and whatnot...


Also we no longer receive our english publications here in canada from the us, they all "disapear" in the mail.

That's interesting...I hear customs is kinda the main censoring agency of the Canadian state, and a lot of it is based on a law pushed through by the "antipornography feminists", y'know Dworkin and MacKinnon and that bunch.

At one time due to a construction workers strike in International Falls, Minnesota I had occasion to cross the border a number of times with literature in the trunk, one time the Canadian border cops checked it and insisted on doing an inventory of everything...